The organised labour has appealed to the Federal Government against any plan to increase the price of electricity or petrol to avert crisis in the economy.

Babatunde Olatunji, President, National Union of Chemical, Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Product Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), made the appeal at 29th Annual Industrial Relations seminar of the union in Ibadan on Monday.

According to Olatunji, any plan to increase electricity or petrol will be a wrong step and the organised labour will do everything within its capacity to resist it.

He said that currently, power supply in Nigeria stood at 4,000 megawatts for about 200 million population compared to South Africa with 58,000 megawatts which has 50 million population.

”Industrialisation cannot take place in the absence of power. Inadequate infrastructure like bad road network is also a challenge. From the source of raw material to the market areas is dilapidated, the roads network are no longer motorable,” he said.

The NUCFRLANMPE president said that government at different levels needed to make the manufacturing sector to thrive by giving attention to factor that promoted industrialisation.

”Government should ensure adequate power, security of lives and properties as well as regulate multiple taxation and charges to allow manufacturing companies survive, thus promote Gross Domestic Products in the country,”

The labour leader further said that the effect of socio-economic crises  on industrial relations was evident in the high number of job losses arising from redundancy and factory closures.

He said that the management of some organisations in a bid to maximise profit make staff to work for more than eight hours without overtime payment while many permanent employment are converted to casual.

He urged the management of affected organisations to treat all workers with dignity whether casual or permanent employment and also respect the International Labour Organisation’s law on workers right to form or join a union irrespective of their status.

Meanwhile, Femi Oke, Secretary, Chemical and Non-Metallic Product s Employers Federation (CANMPEF), advised the government to prioritise the sale of foreign exchange for manufacturers to boost production.

Oke advised the government to curtail inflation rate, stop multiplicity of levies, prioritise infrastructure and improve security for development of the nation.

He also called for collaboration and communication between employers and employees to ensure the survival of organisation.

A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has restrained the Edo State Government and its Governor, Godwin Obaseki, from forcing residents of the state to take COVID-19 vaccine.

Obaseki had said recently in Benin that Edo residents would be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before they would be allowed into public places like churches, mosques, and malls.

The Nation reported that the court in a suit, dated August 30, 2021, ordered the governor, the Edo State Government, and three other respondents, “to maintain status quo pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice, for the enforcement of the applicant’s fundamental human rights and for the leave of court to serve the respondents by publishing the court’s processes in a national daily newspaper circulating in Nigeria.”

The suit was filed on behalf of the applicant, Charles Osaretin by Echezona Etiaba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, according to the report.

The case, which has been adjourned to September 10 for hearing of the substantive motion, was heard by a vacation judge, Stephen Pam.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday urged Nigerian graduates to apply for the Jubilee Fellows Programme.

The programme, a Federal Government initiative in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aims to place 20,000 skilled young Nigerian graduates (under the age of 30) into jobs in private and public sector organizations around the country.

The jobs will last for 12 months, will be fully-paid, and will seek to help prepare recent graduates for their future careers and work environments.

 “We believe that as this programme creates new opportunities for 20,000 recent graduates annually, the beneficiaries will use the opportunities presented to them and maximize their 12 months of engagement,’’ the President said at the State House in Abuja while launching the programme.

The President said his administration has focused on job creation as a way to stimulate the economy.

President Muhammadu Buhari participates virtually at the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme in State House on August 31, 2021.

“An important part of our policies and strategies is the focus on employment and creating opportunities for our people,” he said.

“When this government was elected in 2015, we committed to increasing job opportunities for Nigerians and as part of our social investments programme we recruited 500,000 graduates into our N-power programme.”

According to the President, the Jubilee programme “will provide a pathway for young Nigerians to gain work experience in top tier organisations, gaining relevant skills and building the right networks for the future in various sectors including information and communications technology, financial services, trade, manufacturing, agriculture and agro-processing.

“Other sectors include mining, telecommunications, creative industries and technology, education, health, research and development, and public sector institutions. We believe that building the right skills and experiences across these sectors are important to sustain the economic growth we are experiencing.’’